Networks' support and interference with regard to marriage: Disclosures of marital problems to confidants.

Videotapes of 15 maritally adjusted and 13 unadjusted wives' interactions with confidants were coded by means of an observation system that assesses outsiders' support and interference with regard to wives' marriages. Adjusted wives' conversations were more supportive of marriage than were unadjusted wives' conversations, but the groups did not differ on sequences involving interference behaviors. The proportion of happily married confidants in wives' networks was associated with the likelihood of confidants reciprocating wives' support of their own marriages, but confidants' characteristics did not predict interference. Regardless of marital adjustment, confidants' interference behaviors predicted wives' level of distress and distance from husbands after the conversations. The results, which have implications regarding social construction of cognitions in marriages, are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)