Marital processes in early marriage are important for understanding couples' future marital quality. Spouses' attributions about a partner's behavior have been linked to marital quality, yet the mechanisms underlying this association remain largely unknown. When we used couple data from the Family Transitions Project (N = 280 couples) across the…

The authors investigated the degree to which parents become more similar to each other over time in their childrearing behaviors. Mothers and fathers of 451 adolescents were assessed at 3 points in time, with 2-year lags between each assessment. Data on parent warmth, harshness, and monitoring were collected by parent self-report, adolescent…

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 a theoretical model, specific hypotheses about factors that moderate the benefits of attending the Preparing for the Drug-Free Years program were tested. Results for fathers (n=144) show that high levels of family stress reduce the benefits of program attendance and strong pre-program skills increase the benefits of program attendance.…

Studied role of adolescents' awareness in relationship between marital conflict and adolescent distress. Found marital conflict was related to parental hostility toward adolescents and adolescents' awareness of conflict; parental hostility and adolescents' awareness of marital conflict were related to adolescent-perceived parental hostility. Found…