Prevention of marital distress: A longitudinal investigation.

This study examines the impact of an intervention designed to prevent divorce and marital distress. Both short- and long-term effects of a cognitive-behavioral marital distress prevention program were assessed. Forty-two couples planning marriage were matched and randomly assigned to intervention (n?=?21) and control (n?=?21) conditions. Couples participated in pre- and postintervention assessment sessions and in similar assessment sessions 1? years and 3 years later. The intervention emphasized communication and problem-solving skills, clarifying and sharing expectations, and sensual/sexual enhancement. Although postintervention results indicated that couples learned the skills taught in the program, no group differences emerged on self-report measures of relationship quality. At 1? years, intervention couples showed higher levels of relationship satisfaction than control couples. At 3 years, intervention couples showed higher levels of both relationship satisfaction and sexual satisfaction and lower levels of problem intensity. These data support cost-effective prevention programs for attacking the major social problem of divorce. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Prediction of marital distress: A 5-year follow-up.

26 couples (mean age 20.3 yrs) planning marriage participated in the initial stage of the study, and 9 of the 21 couples remaining intact during the study completed data (including the Marital Relationship Inventory) at all 3 follow-up points. A correlation coefficient of .59 was obtained, indicating that the more positively premarital couples had rated their communication, the more satisfied they were with their relationship 5? yrs later. Findings are consistent with the social learning model of marriage hypothesis that communication deficits precede the development of marital distress. (4 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Personality disorder symptoms and marital functioning.

Pathological personality is strongly linked with interpersonal impairment, yet no study to date has examined the relationship between concurrent personality pathology and dysfunction in marriage--a relationship that most people find central to their lives. In a cross-sectional study of a community sample of married couples (N = 82), the authors used multilevel modeling to estimate the association of self- and spouse-reported symptoms of personality disorder (PD) with levels of marital satisfaction and verbal aggression and perpetration of physical violence. Inclusion of self- and spouse report of total PD symptoms resulted in improved model fit and greater variance explained, with much of the improvement coming after the addition of spouse report. The incremental validity of spouse report for several of the 10 PD scales was supported for marital satisfaction and verbal aggression, particularly for the Borderline and Dependent PD scales. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Predicting marital distress and dissolution: Refining the two-factor hypothesis.

Measures of communication, hostility, and neuroticism taken from 85 couples from Germany before marriage were used to predict marital outcomes 5 years later. Hostility and neuroticism discriminated between couples who separated or divorced after 5 years and those who remained married, whereas communication discriminated between married-satisfied and married- dissatisfied couples. Only hostility and neuroticism predicted marital satisfaction at 18 months, suggesting that these factors contribute to rapid, early declines in marital functioning. The authors conclude that poor communication alone cannot account for the full range of marital outcomes and that skill-based models of marriage can be strengthened by considering relatively rare exchanges between partners (e.g., aggression) and their enduring vulnerabilities (e.g., neuroticism). (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Marital violence, marital distress, and attributions.

Because empirical associations involving marital distress may be confounded by the presence of marital violence, 2 studies examined the interplay among marital distress, marital violence, and attributions for marital events. Study 1 showed that marital satisfaction was associated with causal and responsibility attributions independently of violence in a sample of 130 husbands. Study 2 demonstrated that the satisfaction–attribution association was independent of violence in a sample of 60 newlywed husbands and also showed that responsibility attributions predicted satisfaction 12 months later when violent husbands were excluded from the sample. These findings support the focus on cognitive variables in recent models of marriage and marital violence. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Marital problem-solving behavior in depression and marital distress.

The present study examined the effects of depression and marital distress on behavior during a marital problem-solving interaction. A complete factorial design combined the presence or absence of a depressed wife with the presence or absence of marital distress, to produce four groups of participant couples. An increase in depressive behavior was the sole unique contribution of a depressed wife, occurring regardless of the level of marital distress. Increased aggressive behavior and decreased facilitative behavior were found to characterize the interactions of maritally distressed couples and were not influenced by depression. Resolution-oriented behavior remained unchanged as a result of either depression or marital distress. The results indicate that marital distress, in addition to depression, should be considered as a source of dysfunctional behavior in marital interactions involving depressed individuals. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The premarital communication roots of marital distress and divorce: The first five years of marriage.

Using data from 210 couples who provided data across the first 5 years of marriage, we examined how premarital communication quality was related to divorce and later distress. The results showed that premarital observed negative and positive communication nearly reached significance as predictors of divorce, while self-reported negative communication was significantly associated with divorce. In terms of marital adjustment, we found that both premarital observed and self-reported negative premarital communication (but not observed positive communication) were associated with lower adjustment during the first 5 years of marriage. The most important questions addressed in this study pertain to how positive and negative dimensions of communication change over time and how these changes are related to being distressed or nondistressed after 5 years of marriage. This is the first study, to our knowledge, to examine the changes in communication over time that are so central to theories of the development of marital distress and for research-based interventions. We found that all couples showed decreases in negative communication over time, but the nondistressed group declined significantly more than the distressed group in negative communication, suggesting they are handling negative emotions better. Implications for future research on the development of relationship distress and for enhancing research-based couples' intervention programs are provided. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Effectiveness of behavioral marital therapy: Empirical status of behavioral techniques in preventing and alleviating marital distress.

This article uses meta-analyses to determine the effectiveness of behavioral marital therapy (BMT) and premarital intervention (BPI) studies. The effect size for the 17 BMT studies was .95 and for the 7 BPI studies was .79, and these gains were generally maintained over time. Cross-cultural comparisons of BMT indicated equal benefits for couples in Europe and the United States. For BMT, effect sizes were higher for comparisons with no treatment versus placebo control groups, whereas the reverse was true for BPI. For BMT, effect sizes were similar for observational and self-report measures, whereas for BPI, effect sizes were larger for observational versus self-report measures. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Coparenting and triadic interactions during infancy: The roles of marital distress and child gender.

The interaction patterns of 47 intact couples at play with infant sons and daughters were examined. Play in the triad was characterized along dimensions of hostility-competitiveness, family harmony, and parenting discrepancy, and correlates of these 3 patterns were investigated. Though family patterns were generally not related to self-reported distress, they were associated with observed marital distress, with marital–family links differing as a function of child gender. Maritally distressed parents of boys more commonly displayed hostile-competitive coparenting behavior in the triad, whereas distressed parents of girls were more likely to show discrepant levels of parenting involvement. Two systemic hypotheses suggested by family theory (linking marital conflict to hostile-competitive coparenting and marital power to parenting discrepancies) were also supported. These findings indicate the importance of conceptualizing coparenting as a construct separable from marital distress. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Construct of attributional style in depression and marital distress.

Although important theoretically, consistency in attribution responses or attributional style has rarely been investigated empirically. The responses of 150 couples were used to examine whether consistency of attribution responses within attribution dimensions and consistency in the pattern of responses across attribution dimensions were associated with adaptational outcomes. Replicating previous findings, mean attribution scores correlated with depression and with marital distress. Consistency of attribution responses was unrelated to either adaptational outcome, whereas (1) theoretically derived pessimistic and optimistic attribution patterns were related to depression scores and (2) benign and nonbenign marital attribution patterns were related to marital satisfaction scores. The implications of these findings for the level at which attributional style is best conceptualized are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Physiological down-regulation and positive emotion in marital interaction.

Previous studies have demonstrated that 1 function of positive emotion is the undoing of physiological arousal produced by negative emotions. These studies have used single-subject paradigms, in which emotions were induced by films in college-age individuals. In the present study, we examined the relationship between physiological down-regulation and positive emotion in a sample of 149 middle-aged and older married couples engaged in a 15-min discussion of an area of marital conflict. During the conversation, autonomic and somatic physiological activity was measured, and emotional behaviors were recorded and subsequently coded. We found that during 20-s periods of down-regulation (where physiology transitioned from high arousal to low arousal), couples showed an increase in positive emotional behavior compared with periods without down-regulation. The finding was quite robust, suggesting that the undoing effect of positive emotion generalizes across age, sex, and marital satisfaction. The advantages of using positive emotion as an emotion regulation strategy are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The connubial crucible: Newlywed years as predictors of marital delight, distress, and divorce.

This study showed that couples' newlywed marriages and changes in their union over the first 2 years foreshadow their long-term marital fate after 13 years. Consistent with the enduring dynamics model, differences in the intensity of newlyweds' romance as well as the extent to which they expressed negative feelings toward each other predicted (a) whether or not they were happy 13 years later (among those who stayed married) and (b) how long their marriage lasted prior to separation (for those who divorced). The results provide little support for the idea that emergence of distress (e.g., increasing negativity) early in marriage leads to marital failure but instead show that disillusionment—as reflected in an abatement of love, a decline in overt affection, a lessening of the conviction that one's spouse is responsive, and an increase in ambivalence—distinguishes couples headed for divorce from those who establish a stable marital bond. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Prevention of marital distress: Results of a German prospective longitudinal study.

This article reports on the development and long-term evaluation of a marital distress prevention program for German couples, the Ein Partnerschaftliches Lernprogramm (EPL, A Couple's Learning Program). The EPL is a 6-session program designed to teach couples effective communication and problem-solving skills. In the current article, the EPL is evaluated in a prospective, quasi-experimental, controlled trial. The results of the 3-year follow-up are reported, contrasting 55 EPL couples with a control group of 17 couples. Significant differences emerged with regard to the couples' dissolution rates, relationship satisfaction, and positive and negative communication behavior favoring the EPL couples. These results demonstrate the utility of the EPL program in assisting happy couples who are preparing for marriage. The implications of the findings for prevention research and for the dissemination of prevention programs are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The relationship of attributions to marital distress: A comparison of mainland Chinese and U.S. Couples.

Research on attribution theory has focused on a number of different social contexts. Close personal relationships and marriage in particular have been investigated widely. Cross-cultural differences in attribution patterns have also been explored, although mostly in relation to academic achievement or employment. This article focused on cross-cultural variations in marital attributions. Thirty-six couples from the People's Republic of China (P.R.C.) and 32 couples from the United States (U.S.) were included. Marital attributions were correlated with marital distress for both groups. However, the P.R.C. spouses tended to report more relationship-enhancing causal attributions than did U.S. spouses. There were also some differences in attributions of responsibility and blame across cultures. These findings are discussed in relationship to current marital attribution theory. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Understanding marriage and marital distress: Do milliseconds matter?

This article addresses concerns raised about F. D. Fincham, P. C. Garnier, S. Gano-Phillips, and L. N. Osborne's (1995) study by placing it in the context of current marital research. Studies of marriage-related cognitions have centered on the content of cognitions and have ignored the cognitive processes that give rise to them. Therefore, little is known about spousal cognitions that are unavailable for self-report or about the role of cognitive processes in initiating, maintaining, or alleviating marital distress. Reaction time has the potential to be one of several variables that can be used to investigate such processes. The challenge faced by marital researchers is to incorporate the information-processing paradigm into their work, thereby integrating it with broader literatures in cognitive psychology and social cognition. Failure to do so will leave marital researchers with an incomplete picture of marriage. (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)     

Conjoint monitoring of symptoms of premenstrual syndrome: Impact on marital satisfaction.

30 women who met criteria for late luteal phase dysphoric disorder (premenstrual syndrome [PMS]) were randomly assigned to either a control group or a conjoint monitoring group. Following 3 mo of prospective charting to confirm the existence of PMS, the control group women continued to monitor menstrual cycle symptoms, while the conjoint monitoring group involved both the wife and the husband in charting cyclic symptoms. A 2 (control vs conjoint monitoring)?×?2 (pretest vs posttest) multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) with 9 dependent variables from the Marital Satisfaction Inventory (MSI) revealed significant effects. Follow-up analyses showed that MSI scores predicted group membership (treatment or control) and that the conjoint monitoring treatment resulted in significantly greater improvement on specific MSI scores (Global Distress, Affective Communication, Problem-Solving Communication, Disagreement About Finances, and Sexual Dissatisfaction) than in the wives-only condition. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Understanding general and specific connections between psychopathology and marital distress: A model based approach.

Marital distress is linked to many types of mental disorders; however, no study to date has examined this link in the context of empirically based hierarchical models of psychopathology. There may be general associations between low levels of marital quality and broad groups of comorbid psychiatric disorders as well as links between marital adjustment and specific types of mental disorders. The authors examined this issue in a sample (N = 929 couples) of currently married couples from the Minnesota Twin Family Study who completed self-report measures of relationship adjustment and were also assessed for common mental disorders. Structural equation modeling indicated that (a) higher standing on latent factors of internalizing (INT) and externalizing (EXT) psychopathology was associated with lower standing on latent factors of general marital adjustment for both husbands and wives, (b) the magnitude of these effects was similar across husbands and wives, and (c) there were no residual associations between any specific mental disorder and overall relationship adjustment after controlling for the INT and EXT factors. These findings point to the utility of hierarchical models in understanding psychopathology and its correlates. Much of the link between mental disorder and marital distress operated at the level of broad spectrums of psychopathological variation (i.e., higher levels of marital distress were associated with disorder comorbidity), suggesting that the temperamental core of these spectrums contributes not only to symptoms of mental illness but to the behaviors that lead to impaired marital quality in adulthood. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Sex differences in positive well-being: A consideration of emotional style and marital status.

This article reviews all published studies reporting tests for sex differences in well-being. Women were found to report greater happiness and life satisfaction than men. This sex difference was explained in terms of men's and women's social roles: The female (vs. male) gender role specifies greater emotional responsiveness. Furthermore, past role-related experiences provide women with appropriate skills and attitudes. Women's (vs. men's) greater well-being was also found to hold for married but not unmarried Ss: For both sexes the married state (vs. unmarried) was associated with favorable well-being, but the favorable outcomes proved stronger for women than men. Given that most Ss were married, the overall sex difference in well-being can be attributed to Ss' marital status. These findings were discussed in the context of prior research on sex differences in negative well-being. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Children's responses to adult–adult and mother–child arguments: The role of parental marital conflict and distress.

Children's responses to verbal and physical conflict between adult–adult, mother–girl, and mother–boy participants were examined as a function of parental marital conflict. Seven- to 9-year-olds viewed videotaped arguments and were then interviewed. In comparison with children from low-conflict homes, children from high-conflict homes perceived the actors engaged in both the interadult and mother–child disputes as more angry and reported feeling more fearful during these arguments. The results extend support for the sensitization hypothesis and indicate that parental marital conflict exacerbates children's perceptions of conflict and fear responding to not only interadult disputes but also to mother–girl and mother–boy conflict. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)