Rapid sexual involvement may have adverse long-term implications for relationship quality. This study examined the tempo of sexual intimacy and subsequent relationship quality in a sample of married and cohabiting men and women. Data come from the Marital and Relationship Survey, which provides information on nearly 600 low- to moderate-income…

Using Family and Community Health Study data consisting of 168 unmarried, primarily African American couples, the current study sought to understand the dyadic interplay among school, work, and partner-specific marriage expectations in early adulthood. Drawing on the economic prospects, adult transitions, and work-family literatures, the authors…

Risks associated with less satisfying intimate relationships often co-occur within individuals, raising questions about approaches that consider only their independent impact. Utilizing the "cumulative risk model," which acknowledges the natural covariation of risk factors, this study examined individuals in intimate relationships using…

This study examined longitudinal links between incongruence in mothers' versus fathers' differential treatment of adolescent-age siblings and parents' marital quality. Multilevel models including 200 families, over four waves, spaced across 6 years tested whether youth perceptions of incongruence in differential intimacy and conflict predicted…

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…

Based upon qualitative data from a sample of 77 married or long-term cohabiting heterosexuals self-defining as involuntarily celibate, we used social exchange theory to develop a model for understanding the causes and consequences of sexual inactivity in committed relationships. Although reported consequences of involuntary celibacy tended to be…

We use prospective couple-level data from the Changing Lives of Older Couples to assess the extent to which spouses concur in their assessments of marital quality (N = 844) and whether discrepancies in spouses' marital assessments affect the bereaved spouse's psychological adjustment 6 months after loss (n = 105). Spouses' assessments of marital…

We integrate theoretical traditions on the social construction of gender, heterosexuality, and marriage with research and theory on emotion work to guide a qualitative investigation of how married people understand and experience sex in marriage. Results, based on 62 in-depth interviews, indicate that married men and women tend to believe that sex…

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…

Using data from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Survey (N= 3,567), we examine the links between relationship status, relationship quality, and race and ethnicity in breastfeeding initiation. We consider four relationship types: married, cohabiting, romantically involved but not cohabiting (termed visiting), and nonromantically involved…

The present research examined how perceived marginalization of one's romantic relationship is associated with level of future commitment to and stability of that involvement. Results from a 7-month longitudinal study of romantically involved individuals (N = 215) revealed that perceived social network marginalization at Time 1 predicted breakup…