Compares the predictors of marital well-being for African American and European American women by focusing on the influences of individual, interpersonal, and social and economic resources. Emotional health, trusting one's spouse, and feeling underbenefited in the relationship were significant predictors of marital well-being for both groups.…

The present study developed a theoretical framework for understanding the social mechanisms underlying disclosure and its link with relationship satisfaction in a full family design. A study among 262 intact families, consisting of 2 children and 2 adults and involving 1,048 individuals, applied the social relations model. Results showed that…

We used data from the study of Marital Instability Over the Life Course to examine links between divorce in the grandparent generation and outcomes in the grandchild generation (N= 691). Divorce in the first (G1) generation was associated with lower education, more marital discord, weaker ties with mothers, and weaker ties with fathers in the…

We conducted a reliability generalization meta-analysis to examine the internal consistency of Dyadic Adjustment Scale (DAS; Spanier, 1976) scores across 91 published studies with 128 samples and 25,035 participants. The DAS was found to produce total and Dyadic cohesion, Consensus, and Satisfaction scores of acceptable internal consistency,…

This meta-analysis finds that parents report lower marital satisfaction compared with nonparents. There is also a significant negative correlation between marital satisfaction and number of children. The data suggest that marital satisfaction decreases after the birth of a child due to role conflicts and restriction of freedom. (Contains 30…

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. Findings are indicators of heightened risk for poor marital outcomes and thus document an emotional mechanism by which job stress and…

We investigated the impact of relative marital power on 72 newlywed couples' endocrinological responses to marital conflict. Marital power was determined by comparing spouse's reports of dependent love for one another. Less powerful spouses displayed elevated adreno-corticotropic hormone ACTH responses to a conflict discussion. Shared power…

This study tests a cross-cultural model of the work-family interface. Using multigroup structural equation modeling with IBM survey responses from 48 countries (N= 25,380), results show that the same work-family interface model that fits the data globally also fits the data in a four-group model composed of culturally related groups of countries,…

We test the so-called escape hypothesis, which argues that for people from a poor marriage, a divorce has a less negative or even a positive effect on well-being. In an analysis of two waves of the National Survey of Families and Households (N = 4,526), we find only limited evidence. When people divorce from a dissatisfactory or unfair marriage,…

We examine how relative resources, time availability, gender ideology, living arrangement, child-care demand, and job satisfaction are associated with the levels of younger Japanese fathers involvement in child care for preschoolers. A theoretical model that includes these factors is tested using 1994 data collected from Japanese fathers and…

We work from a stress and life course perspective to consider how stress affects trajectories of change in marital quality over time. Specifically, we ask whether stress is more likely to undermine the quality of marital experiences at different points in the life course. In addition, we ask whether the effects of adult stress on marital quality…

Information technology is entrenched in everyday life; yet, scholars have not firmly established whether this use blesses or vexes individuals and their families. This study analyzes longitudinal data (N = 1,367) from the Cornell Couples and Careers Study to assess whether increases in spillover explain changes in distress and family satisfaction…

We examined the nature and implications of family differentiation among adolescents facing a life transition in 2 European countries with differing family cultures. One hundred and twenty-four Italian and 109 U.K. adolescents completed measures of family differentiation (cohesion and enmeshment), identity threat (perception of threat to the self…

Past research consistently indicates that poverty and economic hardship have negative consequences for children. Few studies, however, have examined whether these consequences persist into adulthood. This study addresses this gap by assessing whether economic resources in the family of origin have long-term effects on psychological well-being in…

Compares six indicators of adults' lives for those who become parents and those remaining childless. Becoming a parent was found to be both detrimental and rewarding. With the exception of social integration, which is greater for all groups of new parents, compared with childless counterparts, the effects of parental status vary markedly by gender…