Generalized and specific loneliness in early marriage.

38 husbands (mean age 26 yrs) and wives (mean age 23.8 yrs), married for an average of 35.8 mo and without children, independently completed a set of established measures of loneliness and of aspects of their marital relationship (e.g., UCLA Loneliness Scale). Significant levels of loneliness were reported by some Ss, and only modest correlations were found between the loneliness scores of husbands and wives. General and specific loneliness were related to marital attitudes, particularly less liking, less intimacy, and greater communication apprehension among husbands, and to less liking, less marital satisfaction, less love, and less self-disclosure among the wives. Scores of the spouses and spouse difference scores on several of these variables were also related to loneliness. Findings are discussed as pertaining to loneliness without social isolation and in relation to the quality of relationships. (French abstract) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Self- and spouse ratings of anger and hostility as predictors of coronary heart disease.

Self- and spouse ratings of anger and hostility were examined as predictors of coronary heart disease (CHD) in 185 cardiac patients. Patients completed the Multidimensional Anger Inventory (MAI) and the Marlowe-Crowne Social Desirability (MCSD) Scale; the MAI (rewritten to 3rd person) was completed by Ss' spouses or by a peer. Thallium scans were used to measure CHD status. Results show that patient-rated MAI scores were inversely correlated with MCSD. There were no gender differences for patient-rated MAI scores, but spouse ratings showed gender effects for Anger-Arousal and Hostile Outlook: Women rated their husbands higher than men rated their wives. Patients with positive thallium scans were no different from those without CHD on patient-rated MAI scores; however, spouse ratings indicated that those with CHD had higher Hostile Outlook and Anger-In scores. After accounting for the effects of traditional CHD risk factors, only spouse-rated hostility contributed significant incremental variance to the prediction of CHD status. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Affective responses to conflictual discussions in violent and nonviolent couples.

Compared the affective responses of physically aggressive (PA), verbally aggressive (VA), withdrawing (WI), and nondistressed/nonaggressive (ND) couples during 2 10-min problem-oriented discussions. Coding by outside observers was used to evaluate the motor-expressive components of spouses' emotions. Spouses' self-reports immediately following each discussion were used to assess physiological and phenomenological experiences during the discussion as well as to evaluate the external validity of the discussions. In 3 planned comparisons, PA spouses were compared with other conflictual but nonviolent spouses, all 3 groups of conflictual spouses were compared with ND spouses, and WI spouses were compared with VA spouses. Observers reported that PA husbands, compared with VA and WI husbands, exhibited more overtly negative behaviors and reported a more negative emotional state as well as somewhat more physiological arousal. The PA wives differed from the VA and WI wives in their escalating and then deescalating pattern of overt negative behaviors. Both ND wives and husbands were differentiated from all 3 conflictual groups by their low levels of negative affect, high levels of positive affect, and low levels of reported physiological arousal. In most respects, VA and WI spouses were quite similar. Discussion focuses on how these comparatively innocuous affective patterns might be related to extreme expressions of aggression. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Hitting home: Relationships between recent deployment, posttraumatic stress symptoms, and marital functioning for Army couples.

Using a sample of 434 couples consisting of active duty Army husbands married to civilian wives, relationships between recent deployment, current posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms, and a range of marital outcomes were investigated. Self-reports from both husbands and wives regarding relationship functioning did not differ between couples who were and were not separated due to deployment in the prior year. However, deployment in the past year was related to higher levels of current PTSD symptoms for husbands, and husbands' current PTSD symptoms were associated with lower marital satisfaction, confidence in the relationship, positive bonding between the spouses, parenting alliance, and dedication to the relationship for both husbands and wives. In addition, husbands' current PTSD symptoms were associated with higher levels of negative communication for both husbands and wives, and lower satisfaction with sacrifice for the relationship for husbands. Once positive bonding, negative communication, and parenting alliance were controlled, husband PTSD symptoms no longer significantly predicted marital satisfaction for wives. Husband PTSD symptoms continued to exert a significant, but reduced, unique effect on husband marital satisfaction once these variables were accounted for. The results provide greater understanding of the relationship of deployment/PTSD symptoms and marital functioning and suggest areas for intervention with military couples. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Beyond initial attraction: Physical attractiveness in newlywed marriage.

Physical appearance plays a crucial role in shaping new relationships, but does it continue to affect established relationships, such as marriage? In the current study, the authors examined how observer ratings of each spouse's facial attractiveness and the difference between those ratings were associated with (a) observations of social support behavior and (b) reports of marital satisfaction. In contrast to the robust and almost universally positive effects of levels of attractiveness on new relationships, the only association between levels of attractiveness and the outcomes of these marriages was that attractive husbands were less satisfied. Further, in contrast to the importance of matched attractiveness to new relationships, similarity in attractiveness was unrelated to spouses' satisfaction and behavior. Instead, the relative difference between partners' levels of attractiveness appeared to be most important in predicting marital behavior, such that both spouses behaved more positively in relationships in which wives were more attractive than their husbands, but they behaved more negatively in relationships in which husbands were more attractive than their wives. These results highlight the importance of dyadic examinations of the effects of spouses' qualities on their marriages. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Nature and prediction of changes in marital quality for first-time parent and nonparent husbands and wives.

Compared changes in dimensions of marital quality for 1st-time parents and nonparents and examined differences in the extent to which individual-differences variables and discrepancies between spouses on these individual-differences variables predicted change in marital satisfaction for parents and nonparents. Ss were 49 couples who were assessed over a 4-yr period that included the year preceding pregnancy, pregnancy, the baby's 1st year, and the baby's 2nd year. A comparison group of 68 couples who did not become parents was assessed at comparable times. Marital quality declined across the 4 assessment points equally for parents and nonparents on consensus, satisfaction, and affective expression. Parents reported, however, a steeper decline in joint activities than did nonparents. Nonparent wives and parent wives differed in the strength of the correlates of change in marital satisfaction over the 4-yr period. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Perceived equity and intimacy in marriage

The extent to which perceived inequity is related to perceived marital intimacy was examined. Sixty-six couples married five years or less were randomly selected from marriage license records in a western rural community. Equity/inequity was assessed using the Walster global measure of equity. Levels of overall intimacy, conflict resolution, affection, cohesion, sexuality, identity, compatibility, autonomy, and expressiveness were measured using the Waring Intimacy Questionnaire (WIQ). Inequity was associated with lower levels of overall intimacy, compatibility, identity, and expressiveness among the wives. Among the husbands, inequity was not associated with any types of intimacy. When comparing husbands in inequitable relationships to wives in inequitable relationships, the wives reported lower scores for only one kind of intimacy--identity. Explanations and implications for marriage therapy are discussed.     

Assessing responses to recurring problems in marriage: Evaluation of the Marital Coping Inventory.

Evaluated the psychometric properties of the Marital Coping Inventory (MCI) by administering the MCI and measures of marital satisfaction and negative affectivity to 120 newlywed spouses, by observing spouses discussing a marital problem, and by administering the MCI again to 104 spouses 6 mo later. Results extend prior analyses of the MCI. The Avoidance subscale had low internal consistency, wives scored higher than husbands on the Conflict and Self-Blame subscales, coping scores correlated with specific affects expressed in the discussions, and the Conflict and Self-Interest subscales predicted change in marital satisfaction. These findings aid in evaluating the psychometric status of the MCI and the conceptual status of coping as assessed by the MCI. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Memory and depressive symptoms are dynamically linked among married couples: Longitudinal evidence from the AHEAD study.

This study examined dyadic interrelations between episodic memory and depressive symptom trajectories of change in old and advanced old age. The authors applied dynamic models to 10-year incomplete longitudinal data of initially 1,599 married couples from the study of Asset and Health Dynamics Among the Oldest Old (Mage = 75 years at Time 1). The authors found domain-specific lead–lag associations (time lags of 2 years) among wives and husbands as well as between spouses. For memory, better performance among husbands protected against subsequent memory decline among wives, with no evidence of a directed effect in the other direction. For depressive symptoms, wives’ scores predicted subsequent depression increase and memory decline among husbands. Possible individual covariates (age, education, functional limitations) and spousal covariates (length of marriage, number of children, and whether the couple remained intact over the study period) did not account for differential lead–lag associations. The findings of antecedent–consequent relations between wives and husbands are consistent with life-span notions that individual development both influences and is influenced by contextual factors such as close social relationships. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Moderators of the link between marital hostility and change in spouses’ depressive symptoms.

This study examined the moderating roles of marital warmth and recent life events in the association between observed marital hostility and changes in spouses’ depressive symptoms over 3 years. Using the actor-partner interdependence model (APIM), structural equation models (N = 416 couples) suggested that husbands’ marital hostility was significantly related to increases in wives’ depressive symptoms. Moderator analyses showed that husbands’ warmth and wives’ warmth moderate the association between marital hostility and change in wives’ depressive symptoms. The association between husbands’ hostility and increases in wives’ depressive symptoms was stronger under conditions of lower levels of husbands’ warmth than under conditions of higher levels of husbands’ warmth. This same pattern was found for wives’ warmth. Regarding life events, the association between wives’ hostility and increases in husbands’ depressive symptoms was stronger for couples with more recent life events than for couples with fewer recent life events. Practical and empirical implications are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

For better or worse? Coregulation of couples’ cortisol levels and mood states.

Although a majority of adults live with a close relationship partner, little is known about whether and how partners’ momentary affect and physiology covary, or “coregulate.” This study used a dyadic multilevel modeling approach to explore the coregulation of spouses’ mood states and cortisol levels in 30 married couples who sampled saliva and reported on mood states 4 times per day for 3 days. For both husbands and wives, own cortisol level was positively associated with partner’s cortisol level, even after sampling time was controlled. For wives, marital satisfaction weakened the strength of this effect. Partner’s negative mood was positively associated with own negative mood for both husbands and wives. Marital satisfaction fully moderated this effect, reducing the strength of the association between one’s own and one’s partner’s negative mood states. Spouses’ positive moods were not correlated. As expected, within-couple coregulation coefficients were stronger when mood and cortisol were sampled in the early morning and evening, when spouses were together at home, than during the workday. The results suggest that spouses’ fluctuations in negative mood and cortisol levels are linked over several days and that marital satisfaction may buffer spouses from their partners’ negative mood or stress state. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Marital satisfaction and husbands' and wives' perception of similarity in their preferred frequency of coitus.

The hypothesis tested was that maritally satisfied persons perceive their spouses as similar to themselves in preferred frequency of coitus more often than do the maritally dissatisfied. Questionnaires were given to husbands and wives independently, and the findings for the husbands were reliably consistent with the hypothesis but less certainly so for the wives. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Assessing attributions in marriage: The Relationship Attribution Measure.

A brief, simple measure of different types of attributions for partner behavior was examined in 3 studies of married couples. Reliability was established by high internal consistency and test–retest correlations. Causal and responsibility attribution scores correlated with marital satisfaction, attributions for marital difficulties, and attributions for actual partner behaviors generated by spouses. Responsibility attributions were related to (1) reported anger in response to stimulus behaviors used in the measure and (2) the amount of anger displayed by wives during a problem-solving interaction with their partner. The extent to which husbands and wives whined during their discussion also correlated with their responsibility attributions. The results addressed several problems with existing assessments, and their implications for the measurement of attributions in marriage are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The nature and predictors of the trajectory of change in marital quality over the first 4 years of marriage for first-married husbands and wives.

Both spouses from 198 first-married newlywed couples provided information regarding marital quality and depressive symptoms for at least 2 of 4 annual assessments. Husbands and wives showed equal rates of linear decline in marital quality. For both husbands and wives, decreases in marital quality were accompanied by increases in the severity of depressive symptoms, even with controls for the severity of symptoms not linked to depression. In contrast to previous evidence, plausible longitudinal causal paths between depressive symptoms and marital quality were generally nonsignificant and did not differ between husbands and wives. It is proposed that future studies of marital quality adopt a doubly developmental perspective in which attention is directed to the trajectory of change in "risk factors" for marital distress, the trajectory of change in marital quality, and the link between these 2 trajectories. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Collaborative coping and daily mood in couples dealing with prostate cancer.

Collaborative coping (i.e., spouses pooling resources and problem solving jointly) may be associated with better daily mood because of heightened perceptions of efficacy in coping with stressful events. The study examined the daily processes of collaborative coping (individuals' perceptions that the spouse collaborated), perceived coping effectiveness (ratings of how well they dealt with the event), and mood (i.e., Positive and Negative Affect Scale) across 14 days in 57 older couples coping with stressors involving the husband's prostate cancer and daily life in general. In hierarchical multivariate linear models, collaborative coping was associated with more positive same-day mood for both husbands and wives and less negative mood for wives only. These associations were partially mediated by heightened perceptions of coping effectiveness. Exploratory analyses revealed that collaborative coping was more frequent among wives who performed more poorly on cognitive tests and couples who reported greater marital satisfaction and more frequently using collaboration to make decisions. The results suggest that older couples may benefit from collaborative coping in dealing with problems surrounding illness. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Psychological reactions during in-vitro fertilization: similar response pattern in husbands and wives

The purpose of this study was to examine differences in daily emotional, physical and social reactions among husbands and wives during in-vitro fertilization (IVF) or intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI). Forty couples about to undergo ICSI or IVF at a private infertility clinic monitored their emotional, physical and social reactions daily for one complete treatment cycle from the first day of stimulation until the outcome of treatment was known (approximately 35 days). The results showed that men and women had a similar response pattern to oocyte retrieval, fertilization, embryo transfer and the pregnancy test. These stages were associated with the most significant changes in reactions for both spouses. The pattern of results suggested that the most important psychological determinant of reactions during IVF was the uncertainty of treatment procedures. Spouses appeared to be equally sensitive to this uncertainty and both appeared to respond to it with ambivalent feelings involving emotional distress and positive feelings of hope and intimacy.     

Knowing me-knowing you: Reported personality and trait discrepancies as predictors of marital idealization between long-wed spouses.

In previous research, marital idealization has emerged as a significant predictor of adaptation to widowhood, the psychological well-being of spouses of persons with dementia, and the physical health of older married adults over time. Despite the adaptive value of marital idealization, conceptual confusion regarding this phenomenon persists. To this end, the present study examines the degree to which marital idealization is predicted by personality traits relative to partner perceptions of their spouse's personality, and discrepancies between self- vs. spousal reports for both husbands and wives. Multilevel models were computed on the basis of responses from 125 couples married an average of 34 years. Marital idealization by husbands was predicted by his personality (i.e., lower neuroticism, openness to experience, agreeableness, and higher conscientiousness). In contrast, marital idealization by wives was predicted by trait discrepancies (i.e., being seen, and seeing one's spouse, more positively than she or he sees him- or herself). Conscientiousness emerged as the trait for which between-sex differences were most pronounced, whereas both conscientiousness and agreeableness were the traits most broadly associated with marital idealization by both spouses (intracouple trait averages and discrepancies between spousal reports). These results are discussed in relation to gender socialization and between-sex differences. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The influence of adult attachment styles on the association between marital adjustment and depressive symptoms.

This study tested the hypothesis that attachment styles moderate the relationship between marital adjustment and depressive symptoms among husbands and wives. In a sample of 91 married couples, ratings of the anxious-ambivalent attachment style moderated the relationship between marital adjustment and depressive symptoms for both husbands and wives. Additionally, ratings of the secure attachment style moderated the relationship between marital adjustment and depressive symptoms for wives, with a trend for husbands. These findings suggest a relationship between insecurity and a predisposition to depressive symptoms in marital relationships. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Interaction structure of husbands' and wives' disclosure of marital conflict to their respective best friend.

Eighty-eight husbands' and wives' conversations with their respective best friend were coded to assess spouses' and friends' mutual influence in regulating support and interference with regard to spouses' marriage and to assess the impact of spouses' sex and marital satisfaction on the conversation processes. Dissatisfied husbands and wives expressed fewer positive and more negative views of marriage than satisfied husbands and wives and the friends in the 2 groups. There were no group and no sex differences in interference sequences. There were group and sex differences in support sequences. Friends of satisfied wives and those of dissatisfied husbands were more likely than satisfied wives and dissatisfied husbands to get support for their positive views of marriage. The findings are discussed with reference to the specific effects of outsiders' support and interference on satisfied and dissatisfied spouses. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)