This study is the longitudinal extension of an earlier study of perceptions of conflict in the first year of marriage (Acitelli et al., 1993). In both studies, we examined the relative importance (to marital well-being) of partners' similarity and understanding of conflict styles. While the earlier study related perceptions of conflict in the first year with first year marital well-being, the present study related the same first year perceptions with third year marital well-being. Two important changes appearing in the findings for the third year compared to the first year are: (1) constructive acts appeared more important than destructive acts to third year marital well-being, whereas destructive acts were more predictive than constructive acts of first year marital well-being; and (2) the association of wives' understanding of husbands to third year marital well-being was positive for black couples and negative for white couples. This association was positive for both groups in the first year. Results a...
: Although much has been learned from cross-sectional research on marriage, an understanding of how marriages develop, succeed, and fail is best achieved with longitudinal data. In view of growing interest in longitudinal research on marriage, the authors reviewed and evaluated the literature on how the quality and stability of marriages change over time. First, prevailing theoretical perspectives are examined for their ability to explain change in marital quality and stability. Second, the meth...
Marital therapists and researchers have suggested a tendency toward Pursuit by women and Withdrawal by men as an important gender-linked pattern of dealing with marital conflict. The relationships of gender and sex role orientation to behavior in intimate heterosexual relationships were examined in two studies of nondistressed couples. In Study 1, 29 couples were examined longitudinally before and after marriage using an observational and self-report design. No gender differences in Problem Solv...
Analyse du role joue par l'appartenance raciale dans le bien-etre marital. Hypothese que les Noirs americains considerent que leur union est moins harmonieuse que celle des Blancs americains ; de meme les Noires americaines seraient moins satisfaites de leur mariage que les Blanches. La communaute noire americaine se caracterise semble-t-il par un moindre soutien emotionnel et financier entre epoux comparativement a la population blanche
Research is presented on the prospective longitudinal prediction of marital dissolution. First, a cascade toward marital dissolution is described. Second, the cascade is predicted with variables from a balance theory of marriage. Third, there are process and perception (the distance and isolation cascades) cascades related to the cascade toward dissolution. The importance of "flooding" is discussed, as well as a mechanism through which negative perceptions (which are 2 dimensional) become global...
Etude sur le mariage et la qualite des relations conjugales a partir de l'analyse longitudinale des premieres annees de mariage des couples. L'etude montre que la facon dont les couples construisent leur realite maritale prefigure leur bien-etre marital. Quatre hypotheses sont ainsi testees et discutees
Perceptions of self and spouse play a central role in marital relationships. Using data from 219 newlywed couples, we examined the relative importance (to marital well-being) of partners' similarity and understanding of conflict styles. These data include reports of behaviors of the self and spouse during their most recent disagreement. Behaviors were categorized as either constructive or destructive to resolving the conflict, and data from each category were analyzed separately. Measures of per...
Concepts such as “agreement,”“consensus,”“understanding,” and “shared meaning” are very familiar to clinicians. It is argued in this article that similarity in perceptions between spouses is a crucial dimension of the family system underlying these concepts. Findings are presented that support the idea that families vary along a dimension of similarity of perceptions, with more functional families characterized by high similarity between spouses' perceptions of their marriage and their family. I...
Theoretical work on marital conflicts, suggest that perception plays a crucial role in influencing spouses’ attitude towards marital conflict. However, relatively little research exists on psychological factors influencing spousal perception of marital conflicts. This study examined the influence of gender-role strain and marital intimacy on spousal perception of marital conflict. Using dual career couples as the target population, 88 respondents answered questionnaire that consisted of the foll...
: The association between marriage and well-being has led to policies that promote marital interventions and discourage divorce. These include federal initiatives specifically targeting poor couples and couples of color. While there are many prospective studies on marriage that have informed some couple interventions, the studies that are included in this literature sampled predominantly White and middle-class couples. By comparison, far less is known about the longitudinal predictors of relatio...
We tested associations among empathic responsiveness, attachment style, and vagal tone (a physiologic index of emotion regulation) in 103 mother–adolescent dyads. Dyads discussed positive and negative topics and then separately reviewed a videotape of the interaction and rated their own and the other person's affect at one-minute intervals. We used multilevel modeling to analyze the association between one's rating of the other person's affect and the other person's affect (empathic sensitivity)...
This study examined the relationship between spiritual experiences of African Americans and their marital quality. Couples (N 487) completed measures of marital quality as well as a daily spiritual experience measure and an index of religiosity. Using the standard Quality Marriage Index, actor and partner effects were found for both spouses, and these remained when religiosity was controlled. Support was also obtained for two separate dimensions of marital quality comprising evaluations of posit...
We examined 393 African American married couples assigned to (a) a culturally sensitive version of a widely disseminated relationship enhancement program (CSPREP); (b) a similar version of the same program that also included a focus on prayer (PFP condition); or (c) an information-only control condition in which couples received a self-help version of the same program. Husbands averaged 40.5 years of age and wives averaged 38.9 years. We found a significant interaction between intervention and t...
Although heterosexual men typically hold positions of dominance in society, negative aspects of masculinity could lead some men to feel that their gender group is not valued by others (D. A. Prentice & E. Carranza, 2002). Previous research has largely overlooked the impact of men’s own perceptions of their gender group membership on their relationship outcomes. To address this gap, we posited that when heterosexual men feel that their gender identity is devalued, they may relate better to close ...