Mathematics

Clinical psychology

Statistics

Psychology

Partner effects

Marital relationship

Path analysis (statistics)

Marital Therapy

Social psychology

International Journal of Psychology

Marital commitment and satisfaction are known to be closely related, but only limited research has examined the asymmetric interaction patterns between spouses. In this paper, the authors study 400 Chinese couples and find that communication mediates the relationship between marital commitment and marital satisfaction. Using the actor–partner interdependence model, they find that wives and husbands show asymmetric associations for marital commitment, communication and satisfaction. Specifically, compared with husbands, wives are more attuned to the path from marital commitment to marital satisfaction via communication. Implications and limitations are discussed.

Marital commitment, communication and marital satisfaction: An analysis based on actor–partner interdependence model