Used data from three national surveys to examine the relationship between religious homogamy and marital satisfaction. Results indicated that homogamous marriages are more satisfying. Presence of children does not appear to play a mediating role in this relationship, but frequency of attendance at religious services does. (JAC)

The Kansas Marital Satisfaction (KMS) Scale is found to correlate substantially with the Dyadic Adjustment Scale and the Quality Marriage Index but not to correlate significantly more than those two scales with a variety of other satisfaction items designed to assess the discriminant validity of the KMS scale. (Author/BL)

Analyzed marital satisfaction of wives from the perspective of integrating the combined effects of preschool children, employment, social class, and marital social desirability. Rather than indicating a mild problem for all wives, the family life-cycle data actually reflected a very severe source of distress for a small group of wives. (Author/ABL)

Assessed the relationship between complexity level and marital communication response in 28 married adults who role-played situations including chores and communication or relationship issues. Results showed cognitive complexity was predictive of effective responses only in situations involving a couple's relationship. (JAC)

Investigated the relationship between cohabitation and subsequent marital quality in 309 recently married couples. Results showed that having cohabited premaritally was associated with significantly lower perceived quality of communication for wives and significantly lower marital satisfaction for both spouses. (LLL)

This study examined the link between conflict resolution styles (conflict engagement, withdrawal, and compliance) and each spouse's marital satisfaction for 155 couples. Overall, husbands' marital satisfaction was more frequently affected by how their wives resolved conflicts than wives' marital satisfaction was affected by how their husbands…

Examined reciprocal relationship between marital interaction and marital happiness with three-wave panel study of national sample of married persons. Overall findings support hypothesis that there exists positive reciprocal relationship between marital interaction and marital happiness, particularly demonstrating important role of marital…

Studied marital satisfaction in 106 women, evaluating satisfaction both early and late in their pregnancy. Found that coping resource and pregnancy decision-making were related to marital satisfaction at both stages. Marital satisfaction remained consistent, both for individuals and for group. Marital satisfaction late in pregnancy was related to…

Data from married couples were analyzed to isolate aspects of religiosity that predicted each of four dimensions of marital adjustment. Religious ritual, experience, and, to a lesser extent, belief correlated significantly with the dimensions of marital adjustment, even when controlling for marital conventionality (social desirability).…

Examined effects of the self-concept, perception of spouse's evaluation, and spouse's actual evaluation on marital quality using interviews with 294 couples. The findings supported the prediction of a relationship between the three components of the reflected self-concept and marital quality and led to a reassessment of the…

Assessed relationship between religious heterogamy and marital happiness of Catholics, using data from National Opinion Research Center General Social Surveys. Findings showed that heterogamy was not related to marital happiness for Catholics, either at bivariate level or when religiosity and other variables were controlled. Religiosity had…

Predicted that marital satisfaction would be higher in later stages of life cycle because of diminishing demands of nonmarital roles. Data from 2,327 older married persons showed that departure of children was associated with higher levels of marital satisfaction; other hypotheses based on role overload theory received no support and were…

Examined prevalence and determinants of stable unhappy marriage using data from national survey. Results indicated age, lack of prior marital experience, commitment to marriage as an institution, low social activity, lack of control over one's life, and belief that divorce would detract from happiness were all predictive of stability in unhappy…

Presents log-linear methods for ordinal data, known as association models, which take ordinality of variables into account and provide flexible and parsimonious modeling tool to study family behavior and interaction. Explains uniform association model and applies it to nationally representative data to examine how ordinal scale of marital…

Studied organization of family system among 54 couples whose oldest child was 12 months and 61 couples whose oldest child was between 24 and 66 months. Couples completed interviews, Family Ritual Questionnaire, and Dyadic Adjustment Scale. Preschool family group reported more family rituals than did infant group. Preschool families who reported…