Compatibility,Leisure, and Satisfaction in Marital Relationships

This study challenges the prevailing view that marital companionship promotes marital satisfaction. By following a cohort of married couples for over a decade and by incorporating several methodological improvements—such as refining the measurement of marital satisfaction, determining how much spouses enjoy doing the leisure activities they pursue together and apart, and using diary data to portray marital leisure patterns—we found that the association between companionship and satisfaction is less robust than previously believed, and that it depends on how often spouses pursue activities that reflect their own and their partner's leisure preferences. Over time, involvement in leisure liked by husbands but disliked by wives, whether as a couple or by husbands alone, is both a cause and a consequence of wives' dissatisfaction.     

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.     

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.     

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.     

The Remains of the Workday: Impact of Job Stress and Exhaustion on Marital Interaction in Police Couples

We examined the impact of job stress and physical exhaustion on the physiological and subjective components of emotional responding during marital interactions between 19 male police officers and their spouses. Couples completed 30‐day stress diaries and participated in 4 weekly laboratory interaction sessions. During interactions on days of greater stress, both spouses were more physiologically aroused, husbands reported less positive and more negative emotion, and wives reported less emotion (both positive and negative). On days of greater exhaustion, husbands were more physiologically aroused. All of these findings are indicators of heightened risk for poor marital outcomes and thus document an emotional mechanism by which job stress and exhaustion can negatively impact marriage.     

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.     

Predictors of Marital Satisfaction Among Korean Immigrant Spouses in the United States

ABSTRACT

This study investigated marital satisfaction among Korean immigrant spouses. Level of acculturation, the number of years of U.S. residence, status inconsistency, annual income, educational level, decision making, division of household tasks, and communication problems were hypothesized to be predictors of marital satisfaction. A snowball sampling strategy yielded 304 respondents. Results showed that level of acculturation was significantly associated with marital satisfaction for Korean immigrant husbands, but not for Korean immigrant wives. Marital decision making was significantly related to marital satisfaction for Korean immigrant wives but not for Korean immigrant husbands. Both acculturation and marital decision making accounted for only 3% of the variance in marital satisfaction. For both spouses, conjugal communication problems were the best predictor of marital satisfaction (16% and 37% of variance explained for husbands and wives, respectively).     

Trait Affection Predicts Married Couples’ Use of Relational Maintenance Behaviors

The present study analyzed the role that trait affectionate communication, an individual-level trait, plays in dyads’ enactment of relational maintenance behaviors. We hypothesized that trait affection positively predicts both husbands and wives’ enactment of relational maintenance behaviors. In addition, we hypothesized that the relative contribution of wives’ trait affection to relational maintenance would be stronger than that of husbands. One hundred and forty-three married heterosexual couples completed questionnaires, and data were analyzed using the actor-partner interdependence model. Results revealed significant actor effects in 9 out of 10 cases. Results also revealed four partner effects. Husbands and wives’ trait affection mutually influenced their enactment of assurances, and husbands’ trait affection positively predicted wives’ enactment of positivity and network sharing. Results are discussed in terms of relational maintenance research and theories of affectionate interaction.     

Patterns of Change in Marital Satisfaction Over the Newlywed Years

Although marital satisfaction starts high and declines for the average newlywed, some spouses may follow qualitatively distinct trajectories. Using eight self-reports of satisfaction collected over 4 years from 464 newlywed spouses, we identified five trajectory groups, including patterns defined by high intercepts and no declines in satisfaction, moderate intercepts and minimal declines, and low intercepts and substantial declines. The groups varied systematically in their 4- and 10-year divorce rates, and wives tended to follow more satisfying trajectories than their husbands. Personality traits, stress, aggression, and communication behaviors assessed shortly after marriage discriminated among groups in expected directions. We conclude by outlining theoretical and practical implications of identifying distinct and predictable patterns of change in relationship satisfaction.     

Marital Happiness,Divorce Status and Partner Differences in Attributions About Communication Behavior

According lo the egocentric attribution in marriage. spouses take more responsibility for marital behaviors (giving compliments, ignoring the partner) than they give to their partners. On the other hand, evidence has also been found for a partner-centric attribution for positive behaviors in which individuals underestimate their own contributions. These attributions are examined as a function of communication behaviors discriminating: between four marital groups based on three levels of marital happiness (low, medium, high) and a divorced group. Partner differences were also examined. The analysis revealed effects for marital group and partner on the direction of communication attributions. For example, the divorced individuals ascribed more responsibility for dominance to their partners than moderate and low quality couples. There were gender differences in which the husbands made a partner-centric attribution in reporting that their wives were more likely to express feelings while the wives made an egocentric attribution for this behavior. The results are discussed in terms of the direction of cognitive inferences.     

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.     

Gaze in married couples

This study examined the looking behavior of married couples during a 10 minute interaction segment. The variables examined included marital adjustment level, interaction role (speaking or listening) and type of message. Wives were more likely to look at their spouses than husbands were, and speakers were more likely to look at their partners than were listeners. While high marital adjustment spouses looked less over all types of mesages, low marital adjustment spouses particularly looked more than the highs on negative messages, suggesting either a confrontation component to the looking, or a strong need to monitor the partner's reactions in such situations. There was also evidence of more displayed competitiveness in the low marital adjustment couples. Correlational analyses revealed that there were different relationships between the looking behavior of the speaking spouse and the looking behavior of the listening spouse, and between the spouses' patterns of looking when speaking or listening and that these differences were dependent on marital adjustment level.     

Relative Contributions of Treatment-Related Changes in Communication Skills and Dyadic Coping Skills to the Longitudinal Course of Marriage in the Framework of Marital Distress Prevention

Most prior studies of skill-based preventive interventions for couples compare changes in problem-solving behaviors made by treated couples with those made by control couples. Unexpected findings in these studies highlight the need to examine within-group variability in behavior change among treated couples, alternative behavioral domains, including dyadic support and coping, and partners' intended and actual use of strategies taught in the interventions. A 24-month longitudinal study of 109 couples participating in an 18-hour intervention designed to enhance communication and dyadic coping revealed that marital outcomes are enhanced to the extent that (a) wives increase their positive problem-solving behavior and husbands decrease their negative problem-solving behavior over the course of the intervention, and (b) wives and husbands increase their positive dyadic coping behaviors, and husbands decrease their negative dyadic coping behaviors. Moreover, greater postintervention use of strategies taught in the intervention program produced better outcomes, and wives' improvements in positive and negative dyadic coping strengthened associations between strategy use and relationship satisfaction. Discussion emphasizes the importance of devising interventions that target key interpersonal processes and that motivate participants to display newly acquired behaviors.     

What’s Wrong With These People? Clinicians’ Views of Clinical Couples

Marriage and family therapy (MFT) faculty and graduate students rated the "typical" or predictable behaviors of husbands or wives coming for therapy using the Georgia Marriage Q-sort. Scores were compared with previously published scores for both "ideal" couples (i.e., showing positive behaviors, attitudes, and problem-solving skills) and a sample of 136 nonclinical, community couples. A review of correlations between MFT raters' scores for clients and the scores for "ideal" or actual community husbands or wives indicated that clinicians have negative views of both clinical husbands and wives. Such negative views of clinical husbands and wives are particularly marked in scores by MFT faculty. MFT students had a similarly negative view of clinical husbands, but such views were not evident for clinical wives. Recommendations for MFT training and implications for future research are discussed.     

Verbal Communication about Sex in Marriage: Patterns of Language Use and Its Connection with Relational Outcomes

This study examined the vocabulary husbands and wives use for talking to each other about sex, and connections between language use and relational qualities. Married people (n?=?293) responded to a questionnaire about their use of common sex-related terms and about several characteristics of their marriage: sexual communication satisfaction, relational satisfaction, and relational closeness. Cluster analysis based on reported use revealed that sexual terms fell into clusters characterized as clinical terms, slang, or standard English. Results showed an association between use of sexual terms, particularly slang terms, and both satisfaction and closeness. This connection was stronger for women than for men. The findings offer insight into sexual talk and marital relationships.     

Verbal Communication about Sex in Marriage: Patterns of Language Use and Its Connection with Relational Outcomes

This study examined the vocabulary husbands and wives use for talking to each other about sex, and connections between language use and relational qualities. Married people (n = 293) responded to a questionnaire about their use of common sex-related terms and about several characteristics of their marriage: sexual communication satisfaction, relational satisfaction, and relational closeness. Cluster analysis based on reported use revealed that sexual terms fell into clusters characterized as clinical terms, slang, or standard English. Results showed an association between use of sexual terms, particularly slang terms, and both satisfaction and closeness. This connection was stronger for women than for men. The findings offer insight into sexual talk and marital relationships.     

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.     

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.     

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.     

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.