Forgiveness and Conflict Resolution in Marriage.

Two studies examined whether forgiveness in married couples is associated with better conflict resolution. Study 1 examined couples in their 3rd year of marriage and identified 2 forgiveness dimensions (retaliation and benevolence). Husbands' retaliatory motivation was a significant predictor of poorer wife-reported conflict resolution, whereas wives' benevolence motivation predicted husbands' reports of better conflict resolution. Examining longer term marriages, Study 2 identified three forgiveness dimensions (retaliation, avoidance and benevolence). Whereas wives' benevolence again predicted better conflict resolution, husbands' avoidance predicted wives' reports of poorer conflict resolution. All findings were independent of both spouses' marital satisfaction. The findings are discussed in terms of the importance of forgiveness for marital conflict and its implications for spouse goals. Future research directions on forgiveness are outlined. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Longitudinal relations between forgiveness and conflict resolution in marriage.

Does forgiveness predict later conflict resolution in married couples? Twelve-month follow-up data on conflict resolution were collected from the couples studied by F. D. Fincham, S. R. Beach, and J. Davila (see record 2004-11293-007), who had provided earlier reports of forgiveness and conflict resolution. For wives, the positive dimension of forgiveness or benevolence predicted husbands' later reports of better conflict resolution controlling for initial levels of conflict resolution. This finding was independent of wives' marital satisfaction and the degree of hurt engendered by husbands' transgressions. For husbands, the only predictor of wives' reports of later conflict resolution was initial level of conflict resolution. The findings are discussed in terms of the direction of effect between forgiveness and conflict resolution and of the mechanisms that might link them. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Linkages between spouses' psychological distress and marital conflict in the home.

To elucidate the processes that underlie the established association between psychopathology and marital functioning, researchers have given attention to how symptomatic individuals manage their interpersonal contexts, particularly during the handling of disagreements. In the current study, the authors evaluate the role of marital conflict strategies in relation to wives' and husbands' psychological distress levels. A sample of 100 community-based couples completed assessments of psychological distress and diaries describing marital conflict that occurred at home during a 15-day reporting period. Findings from multilevel modeling of dyadic data revealed associations between both spouses' psychological distress and multiple behavioral and emotional conflict expressions in the home. Psychological symptoms uniquely predicted the occurrence of certain conflict expressions, even when accounting for global negative marital sentiments. The findings encourage subsequent consideration of marital conflict expressions and resolution strategies when studying processes involved in the marriage-psychological adjustment link. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The marital repercussions of behavior therapy for agoraphobia.

Examined the effects of intensive behavior therapy on the husbands and marriages (mean length of 12.7 yrs) of 32 females with long-standing agoraphobia (mean length 9.5 yrs). Pre- and posttreatment assessments were made of Ss and their husbands to measure fear, hostility, experience, and husband's attitude. Further assessments were made at 3-, 6-, and 12-mo follow-up. In one pattern of marital interaction, couples had increased marital conflict and exposed problems relating to sex roles and wives' autonomy following rapid improvement in wives' phobias, assertiveness, and social confidence. 12 husbands developed psychological symptoms in relation to these problems, which also impeded wives' progress in the 1st 6 mo of follow-up. One year after treatment, marital systems had largely adapted, and both partners were more autonomous within the marriage. In the 2nd pattern of interaction, partners were protected from personal conflict in the 1st 6 mo followed by a mutual adherence to sex-role stereotypes. Husbands reported a marked decrease in psychological symptoms. In the last 6 mo of follow-up, conflict over sex-role stereotypes emerged, and the extent of the patient's continuing symptomatic improvement was determined mainly by the couples' success in resolving these conflicts. (21 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Interpersonal Mediators in the Intergenerational Transmission of Marital Dysfunction.

Intergenerational transmission of marital functioning was examined in a sample of 60 newlywed couples by collecting (a) retrospective reports of conflict and divorce in spouses' families of origin, (b) data on demographic variables and interactional processes likely to increase risk for adverse marital outcomes, and (c) couples' actual 4-year marital outcomes. The association between wives' parental divorce and marital outcome was mediated by their verbal and physical aggression. The association between negativity in husbands' family of origin and marital outcome was mediated by dyadic expressions of negative affect. Demographic variables did not operate as mediators. Negative interpersonal processes appear to be a vehicle by which experiences in the family of origin are carried forward into the next generation of relationships. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Developmental family processes and interparental conflict: Patterns of microlevel influences.

Although there are frequent calls for the study of effects of children on families and mutual influence processes within families, little empirical progress has been made. We address these questions at the level of microprocesses during marital conflict, including children's influence on marital conflict and parents' influence on each other. Participants were 111 cohabiting couples with a child (55 male, 56 female) age 8–16 years. Data were drawn from parents' diary reports of interparental conflict over 15 days and were analyzed with dynamic systems modeling tools. Child emotions and behavior during conflicts were associated with interparental positivity, negativity, and resolution at the end of the same conflicts. For example, children's agentic behavior was associated with more marital conflict resolution, whereas child negativity was linked with more marital negativity. Regarding parents' influence on each other, among the findings, husbands' and wives' influence on themselves from one conflict to the next was indicated, and total number of conflicts predicted greater influence of wives' positivity on husbands' positivity. Contributions of these findings to the understanding of developmental family processes are discussed, including implications for advanced understanding of interrelations between child and adult functioning and development. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Marital locus of control and marital problem solving.

Examined the relation between 88 couples' (mean age 32.67 yrs) marital locus of control and their approach to marital problem solving. Ss completed Rotter's Internal–External Locus of Control Scale and the Miller Marital Locus of Control Scale. It was predicted that internals for marital satisfaction would more actively engage in problem solving than externals and that couples who confronted problems in a constructive rather than an avoidant or destructive style would arrive at better solutions and would be happier with them. Behavioral measures of conflict resolution style and problem-solving ability were derived from videotapes of the couples as they dealt with commonly encountered marital conflict situations. The data support the hypotheses and suggest that internals for marital satisfaction are more active and direct in their problem solving than are externals. Internals were more effective in communicating and achieving their desired goals and reported higher levels of marital satisfaction than externals. Active engagement in the discussion of marital issues by couples resulted in more effective problem solving than styles characterized by avoidance. Destructive marital interaction was related to poor problem solutions and lower self-reported ratings of solution satisfaction. (45 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Observational biases in spouse observation: Toward a cognitive/behavioral model of marriage.

Examined the relationship between couples' (insiders') and observers' (outsiders') perspectives of marital interaction by having 10 nondistressed, and 6 distressed couples and 10 objective observers (undergraduates) evaluate the positiveness of the couples' interactional behaviors. Couples completed the Marital Adjustment Test and performed 2 conflict-resolution tasks. Results reveal that spouses' ratings of their partners' behavior were not consistent with observers' ratings of the partners' behaviors but were consistent with observers' ratings of spouses' own behaviors. Further, wives' scores are isolated as indicators of dysfunctional marital systems. Implications for the behavioral model of marital therapy and the importance of considering cognitive factors that may influence spouses' evaluations of their interactions are discussed. (29 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Social Networks, Structural Interdependence, and Marital Quality Over the Transition to Marriage: A Prospective Analysis.

This study examined the relationship between couples' network interdependence and marital quality in a sample of 347 couples that were recruited at the time of their first marriage. Husbands and wives completed separate, self-administered questionnaires at home. Analyses are based on data collected at the time of marriage, at the first anniversary, and at the second anniversary. Results indicated that after marriage, husbands' and wives' friend and family networks became increasingly interdependent. Moreover, the interdependence of the friend and family networks at marriage predicted wives' marital quality at the first anniversary, whereas wives' marital quality at the first anniversary predicted the interdependence of the friend network at the second anniversary. No significant longitudinal relations were observed for husbands. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Predicting marital and parent functioning in dyads and triads: A longitudinal investigation of marital processes.

This study assessed longitudinally whether couples' dysregulated negative affect before parenthood is predictive of conflict, as well as diminished affective quality, in family relationships 5 years later. Observations of 25 couples' marital communication were made before parenthood and again 5 years later, when data also were collected on parent–child and family interactions. Husbands' prechild marital behavior and couples' prechild negative escalation were predictive of husbands' conflict and triangulation of the child into marital conflict. Family-level functioning (e.g., coalition formation) was predicted by prechild negative escalation. Parenting behavior was not predicted by prechild marital functioning but was related to current marital functioning. The data provide support for the hypothesis that how couples regulate negative affect early on in marriage sets the tone for future interactions involving parents and their child. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Provider role attitudes, marital satisfaction, role overload, and housework: A dyadic approach.

Treating the marital dyad as the unit of analysis, this study examined the within-couple patterning of 272 dual-earner spouses' provider role attitudes and their longitudinal associations with marital satisfaction, role overload, and the division of housework. Based on the congruence of husbands' and wives' provider role attitudes, couples were classified into one of four types: (a) main-secondary, (b) coprovider, (c) ambivalent coprovider, and (d) mismatched couples. Nearly half of all spouses differed in their attitudes about breadwinning. A series of mixed model ANCOVAs revealed significant between- and within-couple differences in human capital characteristics, spouses' perceptions of marital satisfaction and role overload, and the division of housework across 3 years of measurement. Coprovider couples reported higher levels of marital satisfaction and a more equitable division of housework than the other couple groups. Wives in the ambivalent coprovider couples' group reported higher levels of role overload than their husbands to a greater extent than was found in the other couple groups. As the first study to adopt a dyadic approach that considers the meanings that both spouses in dual-earner couples ascribe to paid employment, these findings advance understanding of how dual-earner spouses' provider role attitudes serve as contexts for marital quality, behavior, and role-related stress. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Interpersonal predictors of dieting practices among married couples.

The relations between couples' marital quality and dieting behavior were examined. One-hundred eighty-seven married couples' dieting behaviors, marital quality, body mass index, weight concerns, depression, and self-esteem were assessed. Results indicate that the relation between healthy dieting behaviors and marital quality is similar for both husbands and wives. However, among wives, marital discord predicted unhealthy dieting behaviors, even after wives' body mass index, weight concerns, self-esteem, and depression were controlled for. Furthermore, wives' self-esteem interacted with marital quality when predicting unhealthy dieting. These findings suggest gender differences in the relations between marital quality and dieting behaviors and are consistent with previous research suggesting that men and women have differential response patterns to marital disharmony, with women tending to internalize negative affect experienced in their marriage. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Husbands' and wives' alcohol use disorders and marital interactions as longitudinal predictors of marital adjustment.

In this longitudinal study, the relationships among wives' and husbands' lifetime alcoholism status, marital behaviors, and marital adjustment were tested. Participants were 105 couples from the Michigan Longitudinal Study (MLS), an ongoing multimethod investigation of substance use in a community-based sample of alcoholics, nonalcoholics, and their families. At baseline (T1), husbands and wives completed a series of diagnostic measures, and lifetime diagnosis of alcohol use disorder (AUD, as defined in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 4th ed.), was assessed. Couples completed a problem-solving marital interaction task 3 years later at T2, which was coded for the ratio of positive to negative behaviors. Couples also completed a measure of marital adjustment at T4 (9 years after T1 and 6 years after T2). Results showed that husbands' lifetime AUD predicted lower levels of their wife's positive marital behaviors 3 years later but was not related to their own or their wife's marital adjustment 9 years from baseline. By contrast, wives' lifetime AUD had direct negative associations with their own and their husband's marital satisfaction 9 years later, and wives' marital behaviors during the problem-solving task predicted their own and their husband's marital satisfaction 6 years later. Findings indicate that marital adjustment in alcoholic couples may be driven more by the wives' than the husbands' AUD and marital behavior. Implications for intervention with alcoholic couples were discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Perceiving unfairness in the family: Cause or consequence of marital distress?

[Correction Notice: An erratum for this article was reported in Vol 80(3) of Journal of Personality and Social Psychology (see record 2007-17568-001). The key coefficients on the diagonal paths were incorrect. The corrected figures in their entirety appear in the erratum.] This research tests a model suggesting that marital distress leads individuals to scrutinize of what is given and received in the relationship. This scrutiny elicits perceptions of unfairness that maintain or exacerbate marital distress. In a 3-panel longitudinal study tracking married couples across the transition to parenthood, both wives' and husbands' reports of marital conflict and wives' marital dissatisfaction at Time 1 positively predicted perceived unfairness of the allocation of household tasks at Time 2, controlling for earlier perceptions of unfairness. In addition, there was evidence of perceived unfairness of division of labor at Time 2 predicting marital conflict and marital dissatisfaction for wives at Time 3, controlling for earlier conflict and dissatisfaction. This model of relationship distress and perceptions of unfairness is contrasted with prior interpretations of links between perceived injustice and distress in relationships. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Temporal linkages between wives' pursuit and husbands' withdrawal during marital conflict

This study examined the association between wives' pursuit and husbands' withdrawal during marital conflict discussions, and the affects associated with these behaviors. Ten distressed and 10 nondistressed couples completed a videotaped interaction in which the wives requested changes in husbands' behaviors. Results showed sequential dependencies between wives' pursuit and husbands' withdrawal, but distressed couples, as compared to nondistressed couples, did not engage in stronger pursuit/withdrawal patterns. Distressed husbands showed the highest proportions of anxious affects. The findings are discussed with reference to the affective context of the pursuit/withdrawal pattern.     

Social support, conflict, and the development of marital dysfunction.

How spouses help each other contend with personal difficulties is an unexplored but potentially important domain for understanding how marital distress develops. Newly married couples participated in 2 interaction tasks: a problem-solving task in which spouses discussed a marital conflict and a social support task in which spouses discussed personal, nonmarital difficulties. Observational coding of these interactions showed that wives' support solicitation and provision behaviors predicted marital outcomes 2 years later, independent of negative behaviors during marital problem-solving discussions. In addition, couples who exhibited relatively poor skills in both behavioral domains were at particular risk for later marital dysfunction. These results suggest that social support exchanges should be incorporated into social learning analyses of marriage and into programs designed to prevent marital distress. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Long-term marriage: Age, gender, and satisfaction.

Long-term marriages (N?=?156) varying in spouses' age (40–50 yrs or 60–70 yrs) and relative marital satisfaction (satisfied and dissatisfied) were studied. Spouses independently completed demographic, marital, and health questionnaires and then participated in a laboratory-based procedure focused on areas of conflict and sources of pleasure. Findings supported a positive view of older marriages. Compared with middle-aged marriages, older couples evidenced (1) reduced potential for conflict and greater potential for pleasure in several areas (including children), (2) equivalent levels of overall mental and physical health, and (3) lesser gender differences in sources of pleasure. The relation between marital satisfaction and health was stronger for women than for men. In satisfied marriages, wives' and husbands' health was equivalent; in dissatisfied marriages, wives reported more mental and physical health problems than did their husbands. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

"Perceiving unfairness in the family: Cause or consequence of marital distress?": Correction to Grote and Clark (2001).

Reports an error in "Perceiving unfairness in the family: Cause or consequence of marital distress" by Nancy K. Grote and Margaret S. Clark (Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 2001[Feb], Vol 80[2], 281-293). The key coefficients on the diagonal paths were incorrect. The corrected figures in their entirety appear in the erratum. (The following abstract of the original article appeared in record 2001-16163-008.) This research tests a model suggesting that marital distress leads individuals to scrutinize of what is given and received in the relationship. This scrutiny elicits perceptions of unfairness that maintain or exacerbate marital distress. In a 3-panel longitudinal study tracking married couples across the transition to parenthood, both wives' and husbands' reports of marital conflict and wives' marital dissatisfaction at Time 1 positively predicted perceived unfairness of the allocation of household tasks at Time 2, controlling for earlier perceptions of unfairness. In addition, there was evidence of perceived unfairness of division of labor at Time 2 predicting marital conflict and marital dissatisfaction for wives at Time 3, controlling for earlier conflict and dissatisfaction. This model of relationship distress and perceptions of unfairness is contrasted with prior interpretations of links between perceived injustice and distress in relationships. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Model generation and testing to probe neural circuitry in the cingulate cortex of postmortem schizophrenic brain

How spouses help each other contend with personal difficulties is an unexplored but potentially important domain for understanding how marital distress develops. Newly married couples participated in 2 interaction tasks: a problem-solving task in which spouses discussed a marital conflict and a social support task in which spouses discussed personal, nonmarital difficulties. Observational coding of these interactions showed that wives' support solicitation and provision behaviors predicted marital outcomes 2 years later, independent of negative behaviors during marital problem-solving discussions. In addition, couples who exhibited relatively poor skills in both behavioral domains were at particular risk for later marital dysfunction. These results suggest that social support exchanges should be incorporated into social learning analyses of marriage and into programs designed to prevent marital distress.     

Marital interaction: Physiological linkage and affective exchange.

Studied 30 married couples during naturalistic interactions to determine the extent to which variation in marital satisfaction could be accounted for by physiological and affective patterns between and within spouses. Two hypotheses were tested: (a) Compared to nondistressed couples' interactions, distressed couples' interactions would show greater physiological interrelatedness or "linkage," more negative affect, and more reciprocity of negative affect. (b) These differences would be more pronounced when the interaction was high in conflict (discussing a marital problem) as opposed to low in conflict (discussing the events of the day). Heart rate, GSR, pulse transmission time, and somatic activity from both spouses were analyzed using bivariate time-series techniques to derive a measure of physiological linkage. Self-report affective data were analyzed using sequential analyses to derive a measure of affect reciprocity. The hypotheses were strongly supported; 60% of the variance in marital satisfaction was accounted for using measures of physiological linkage alone. Additional nonredundant variance was accounted for by the other physiological and affective measures. (25 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)