This study examined self-reported marital conflict behaviors and their implications for divorce. Husbands and wives (N = 373 couples; 47% White American, 53% Black American) reported conflict behaviors in Years 1, 3, 7, and 16 of their marriages. Individual behaviors (e.g., destructive behaviors) and patterns of behaviors between partners (e.g.,…

Compared conflictual marital interactions of 17 physically aggressive, 15 verbally aggressive, 18 withdrawing, and 15 low-conflict couples to describe behavior patterns characteristic of couples who report different marital conflict styles. Physically aggressive couples were characterized by reciprocity of hostile affect and by rigid, contingent…

Tested the hypothesis that distressed spouses are more reactive to immediate events than nondistressed couples. Couples recorded positive, negative and neutral events and satisfaction levels. Distressed couples reported lower rates of positive behavior and that marital satisfaction depended more on frequency of recent positive or negative events.…

Determined whether spouses in nondistressed marriages show greater equity and reciprocity of exchange and a greater degree of congruence than spouses experiencing marital distress by examining interactive patterns of self-disclosing behavior using the Self-Disclosure Coding System. Within-couple reciprocity patterns revealed highly similar…

Study contrasts male-female behavior in official initiation and completion of divorce proceedings before and after implementation of "no-fault" divorce law. Passage of no-fault law was followed by reversal in male and female filing and completion patterns, with males filing and completing more frequently under "no-fault"…

Examined susceptibility of marital observations to purposeful faking. Behavioral observations of couples' problem-solving behavior during a conflict-eliciting task were obtained under neutral instructions and under instruction to fake. Evidence for differential responsiveness of marital types to faking instructions was limited and evident only in…

Examined the negative impact of economic hardship on a spouse's marital instability in White, middle-class couples (N=76). The results indicated economic pressures had an indirect association with married couples' evaluation of the marriage by promoting hostility in marital interactions and curtailing the warm and supportive behaviors spouses…

Using questionnaires administered to 566 unmarried students at the University of South Carolina, a comparison was made between reported premarital sexual behavior and projected extramarital sexual behavior. Individuals who were premaritally sexually active were found more likely to project that they would be extramaritally sexually involved.…

Presents typical reactions of adolescents to parental divorce. School based groups for adolescents of divorce can ameliorate the stress and act as a container for reactive impulsive behavior. Educators with a family studies/home economics background are ideally suited to lead such school-based groups. Techniques for establishing and developing…

A woman who had from childhood suffered from neurotic anxieties of an interpersonal kind had for 10 years been plagued with insistent and fruitless negative thoughts about herself. This transcript deals mainly with her objections to the technique of thought stopping and the efforts that were made to overcome them. (Author)

Data from seven recent American national surveys found that persons remarried after divorce had rather high levels of reported well-being, but never-remarried women reported lower aggregate marital happiness than never-divorced married women or never-remarried men; the difference was not explained by race, age, or socioeconomic variables.…

Data from 180 divorced and remarried men and women suggest lack of normative integration of two relationships established by remarriage after divorce. Women were less acceptant; they preferred greater social distance in former spouse-current spouse interaction. Comparisons of expectations for men and women showed no differential standards by…

Compared interactions of 11 dissatisfied and 11 satisfied couples on basis of trained observers' ratings of spouses' behavior through time on 3 scales: withdrawn/involved, hostile/friendly, and displeasure/pleasure. Dissatisfied coupled evidenced significantly lower mean ratings of hostility and displeasure, but no differences in withdrawal.…

The proposition that age at first marriage is inversely related to the risk of divorce was examined by means of detailed age-duration-specific divorce rates for California 1969. A strong inverse relationship was found for male ages at marriage 18 through 25 and female ages at marriage 16 through 24. (Author)

It was hypothesized that unhappily married couples would show a deficit in problem solving by indicating significantly more unresolved problems and would indicate less involvement with one another in both elective free-time activities and shared sexuality. All hypotheses were confirmed. (Author)