Inexperienced men and both inexperienced and moderately experienced women rated highly experienced opposite-sex peers as less desirable dates and marriage partners. Moderately and highly experienced men and highly experienced women tended to rate all opposite-sex peers similarly along these same dimensions. (Author)

Analyzes social introduction services, including singles ads, video dating, and matchmakers by their underlying functions in the marriage market (search for information about eligible others, matching interested singles together, and promoting successful interaction). Uses typology developed to structure review of empirical research on these…

Tested structural equation model of marital functioning based on an attraction paradigm and social-penetration variables. The model posited that the attraction paradigm factors of being satisfied with marital issues and of perceived attitudinal similarity would have an impact upon marital happiness as well as perceived partner understanding, which…

Examined the role of physical attractiveness in marriage. Showed that the decreases in physical appearance normally associated with aging affected husbands' responses to their wives more than wives' to their husbands. Husband's sexual interest, happiness in the sexual relationship, and, to a lesser extent, unfaithfulness were affected. (Author/ABB)

Women revealed more than men about their greatest fears and were likely to be the more higher disclosing partners. Couples with egalitarian sex-role attitudes disclosed more than couples with traditional sex-role attitudes. Self-disclosure was related to love but not to power structure. (Author)

Dyadic trust proved to be associated with love and with intimacy of self-disclosure, especially for longer married partners. It varied by level of commitment. Partners reciprocated trust more than either love or depth of self-disclosure. (Author)

Data on marital satisfaction among those who remarry were examined. These individuals exhibit a high level of marital satisfaction. Traditional correlates of marital happiness among the first-married are poor predictors of marital happiness among the remarried. The problems are different from those in the marriage terminated by divorce.…

Examined strategies married couples used to maintain quality relationship. Assessed relationship of women's perceptions of maintenance activities within marriages to marital satisfaction. Found little relationship between marital satisfaction and strategy valuation. Wives' marital satisfaction was most strongly related to perceptions of frequency…

Interviewed 80 clients of a videodating service to determine how they had chosen to portray themselves to others. Clients were generally satisfied with the image they had presented, but not with the people who had selected them. (TE)

Reviews major advances in research and theory on mate selection in the 1980s. Considers literature relevant to societal trends and influences on trends, social networks and premarital relationships, behavioral features of relationships, and individual attributions for relationship development. Throughout the review, two themes appear:…

Autonomous mate selection based on romantic attraction is more likely to be institutionalized in societies with nuclear family systems. Neolocal residence customs increase the probability that mate selection is autonomous but decrease the probability that it is based on romantic attraction. (Author)

A review of the literature of the 1970s showed that individual determination in marriage continued to increase across the world, though less rapidly in the lesser industrialized nations. One concomitant of this freedom is delayed marriage and the right not to marry at all. (Author)

Analyzed National Survey of Black Americans data (N=2,107) to determine extent and structural correlates of marriage, romantic involvements, and preference for romantic involvement. Found marriage among Blacks dependent on male economic readiness and "traditionality"; fewer marital options for economically disadvantaged males, older…