Using typologies outlined by Gottman and Fitzpatrick as well as institutional and companionate models of marriage, the authors conducted a latent class analysis of marital conflict trajectories using 20 years of data from the Marital Instability Over the Life Course study. Respondents were in one of three groups: high, medium (around the mean), or…

This study examined associations among marital quality, coparenting, and parenting self-efficacy in parents of young children. Of special interest were possible spillover and stress-buffering effects of the marital and coparenting relationships. The authors sampled 175 married and cohabiting couples. Participants were recruited via an online…

This study examined self-reported marital conflict behaviors and their implications for divorce. Husbands and wives (N = 373 couples; 47% White American, 53% Black American) reported conflict behaviors in Years 1, 3, 7, and 16 of their marriages. Individual behaviors (e.g., destructive behaviors) and patterns of behaviors between partners (e.g.,…

Guided by a family stress perspective, we examined the hypothesis that discussing money would be associated with the handling of marital conflict in the home. Analyses were based on dyadic hierarchical linear modeling of 100 husbands' and 100 wives' diary reports of 748 conflict instances. Contrary to findings from previous laboratory-based…

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…

Research consistently shows that children exposed to interparental conflict are at-risk for experiencing psychopathology. Establishing a link, however, between interparental conflict and maladjustment is not the same as understanding "how" specific outcomes manifest. Therefore, we examined the relation of interparental conflict and appraisal with…

Studied 73 couples twice 4 years apart. Proposed typology of five groups of couples (validators, volatiles, avoiders, hostile, and hostile/detached) based on observational data of Time 1 resolution of conflict, specific affects, and affect sequences. Over four years, groups differed significantly in serious consideration of divorce and in…

Compared conflictual marital interactions of 17 physically aggressive, 15 verbally aggressive, 18 withdrawing, and 15 low-conflict couples to describe behavior patterns characteristic of couples who report different marital conflict styles. Physically aggressive couples were characterized by reciprocity of hostile affect and by rigid, contingent…

Undergraduates completed Jones's Irrational Beliefs Test and reported impressions of actors portraying couples on videotape. Disagreeing couples were rated as experiencing more negative feelings, sharing less affection, having less stable relationships, and being less compatible than agreeing couples. Observers high in irrational beliefs reported…

Compared couples with alcoholic husbands and maritally conflicted and nonconflicted couples without alcohol problems. The alcoholic and maritally conflicted couples showed greater relationship distress than nonconflicted couples of measures of marital stability, change desired, and positive communication behaviors. Alcoholic husbands reported less…

Compared communications patterns and conflicts over psychological distance in 25 nondistressed couples, 15 clinic couples, and 22 divorcing couples. Compared with nondistressed couples, both distressed groups had less mutual constructive communication, more avoidance of communication, more demand/withdraw communication, and more conflict over…

Supported the hypotheses that blaming one's spouse for marital problems is negatively associated with marital satisfaction and perceived personal control over conflicts is positively associated with marital satisfaction. The wife's satisfaction was found to be related to her perception of both husband's and wife's contributions. (Author)

Negative affect and negative affect reciprocity appear to be robust properties of marital interaction, and they also have been found to discriminate satisfied from dissatisfied marriages. There is more evidence of consistency across tasks using sequential rather than nonsequential variables. (Author)

Examines the relationship between the quality of marital interaction, both as perceived by spouses and as reported by outside observers, and marital instability and divorce in long-time married couples (n=436). Finds that hostility and marital warmth were fairly accurate predictors of which couples would divorce or be extremely stable or unstable.…

Presents analyses of data from the National Comorbidity Survey to assess the extent to which problems within marriage spill over to produce work loss. Results indicate that marital distress is positively associated with work loss. Suggests family interventions targeted at prevention of marital problems may result in important psychosocial and…